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Pick the ranked-choice argument that works for you

Guests

David Durenberger: Senior health policy fellow at the University of St. Thomas, chair of the National Institute of Health Policy, former U.S. Senator from Minnesota

OFFICIAL BALLOT
DAILY CIRCUIT INTERVIEW WITH DAVID DURENBERGER
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE READERS

In an interview with Tom Weber, former U.S. Sen. David Durenberger expressed multiple reasons for his view that ranked-choice voting should be adopted for congressional races. Select the reasons that you find most persuasive. Rank up to three different reasons, in order of preference.

• Ranked-choice voting will begin to expand voter interest "in both the election and the consequences of the election — in other words, the governance system."

• Ranked-choice voting will improve voters' confidence "in what people say in an election and what they do in the next two years, in the case of a [U.S. House] election."

• Ranked-choice voting will raise the tone of elections, as it has done in the race for Minneapolis mayor. Even with 35 candidates running, the contenders are talking about issues instead of launching personal attacks. "You're starting to introduce something ... that passes for a discussion of the issues facing the city of Minneapolis and the kind of responses that you as a Minneapolis voter are likely to get if you choose Candidate X or A, B, C or whatever. Just the fact that that tone has changed, I would say, is at least in part due to the fact that people are going to have a second and a third choice in the race."

• If we had ranked-choice voting for Congress, "there should be no doubt" that we wouldn't be "putting up with the kind of crap we have to put up with" in the legislative branch.

• Ranked-choice voting allows voters to focus on positions the various candidates may have in common, rather than on the issues that divide them. "You start comparing the candidates not on their personal contrasts, or their issue contrasts, but where there might be similarities between them."

• Any alternative voting system, "if it gives more than one person — or just two people, one from each party — a chance at the electorate, is a much better solution."

LEARN MORE ABOUT DURENBERGER'S ARGUMENT:

• We need ranked-choice voting at the national level
Ranked-choice voting rewards candidates who represent a broad majority, instead of ideologues beholden to a narrow, fanatical "base." Minnesotans — and Americans across the nation — are so fed up with negative campaigns, attack ads, and hyper-partisan gridlock, that we can barely stomach watching the news or paying attention to politics anymore... .
(Dave Durenberger and Tim Penny, in MinnPost)